Corsair PSU Coil Whine

[Brian Davis]

Hello,

I have a Corsair 750W Power Supply and everything was going fine until I started gaming. I heard a high-pitched squealing noise and eventually found out it was the PSU Coil Whining; however, I turned on VSync for some of my FPS games and the whining went away, but on Minecraft (only when running Ultra Graphic Shaders) with VSync on, I get intense coil whining. I tried turning off VSync and setting FPS Cap to 60, it lowered coil whining some but not all of it. I went into my NVidia settings and set Java to always have VSync enabled and triple buffering on to see if that would help but it didn't change anything. Is Coil Whining bad for the PSU? Do any of you know why it would only occur on Minecraft with shaders? Is there a way to fix it?

Example of Noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq0MAKK688E

Thanks for your time,

Brian

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Hi Brian ,

Coil Whine is quite common in the CX series.

CX power supplies should only be in budget builds.

They use lower grade capacitors and don't handle stress very well.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

There is no fix and may get louder in the future.

 

[Brian Davis]

Is it bad for the PSU or it just a noise-annoyance thing?

Thanks for the quick reply by the way,

Brian

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Most of the time just annoying.

 

[Brian Davis]

Most of the time just annoying.

Alright, thanks for the help!

- Brian

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Glad to help!

 

[Brian Davis]

Sorry to bother you again, but is there any way to decrease Coil Whine? Or should I look into another same-price power supply (which would you suggest)? Also, do you have any ideas why it only happens on Minecraft with Ultra High Shaders?

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

When the system is pushed harder you tend to get more whine , but it can happen in less stressed modes also.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

What are your full system specs?

 

[Brian Davis]

Like when I played Minecraft (without any Shaders) and I didn't have VSync on, I got about 1500 to 2000 FPS and the Coil Whining got very loud, so this is an example of pushing the PSU to higher limits, correct? If so, this corresponds when I turned on VSync and it limited the game to 60 FPS, so there was no more whining because it was not being pushed? Sorry for the lots of questions this is my first PC.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Yes , the majority of time it will happen when pushed.

 

[Brian Davis]

Full System Specs:
GPU: MSI GTX 970Ti Overclocked
CPU: Intel i7 4790k
SSD: Crucial MX100 500GB
Ram: 16GB Corsair Vengeance Blue Ram
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO Cooler
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VII Ranger
Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W Power Supply
Case: NZXT White Case

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Your build is very good , the CX is the only weak component , not the greatest , but also not a poor power supply. They don't do as well when stressed , but it's way more than enough power for your setup.

 

[Brian Davis]

Your build is very good , the CX is the only weak component , not the greatest , but also not a poor power supply. They don't do as well when stressed , but it's way more than enough power for your setup.

Alright, I think I will keep my PSU for now (unless you think it would make a big difference to get a high quality one) as long as the Coil Whining doesn't get insanely loud. Anyways, thanks for your help! I really appreciate it!

- Brian

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

If it does get worse down the road , send me a PM anytime , I'll recommend some good ones.